NEW YORK—His pallor was a dull shade of his clothes, which were the color of flint, and every time he stood it seemed possible to hear the bones in his spine rubbing together, like stone against rock.

But even while cranky tends to be Jim Calhoun’s default position, the smiles couldn’t help but spread across his face Tuesday as his Connecticut Huskies kept draining 3-pointers from all over the court. He almost rose to his toes when Roscoe Smith nailed one from the corner, making that 5-of-5 from downtown for UConn, and Calhoun nearly unfolded like an accordion when Ryan Boatright grabbed a pretty skip-pass from Shabazz Napier and in slid another trey.

Watch This

If ever a coach were tempted to go heavy on the melodramatic, it was here, as Boatright, the slippery freshman guard, unleashed a soaring, arching shot that seemed to skim the rafters even as he fell backward, getting fouled as well as sealing the Huskies’ seventh 3-pointer in as many tries.

Calhoun wisely resisted the urge to leap and shout, because it’s best not to test or tempt the back that was operated on a mere eight days ago. If history has a sense of adventure, if UConn has indeed found its mojo and can maybe hit a free throw as well as those far-out jumpers, Calhoun is going to need to preserve his creaking bones for a long march to April.

“It’s been a different kind of season. But through it all, somewhat by separation, I realized how much I care about these kids,” he said after his ninth-seeded Huskies whipped No. 16 DePaul, 81-67, in the first game of a Big East Tournament that figures to careen through all sorts of permutations before it screeches to an end around midnight Saturday.

Sleepy Madison Square Garden was still stifling yawns as the Huskies cruised to Wednesday’s second-round meeting with West Virginia, which should be all kinds of interesting. There we’ll learn if UConn, the defending national champion, has the mettle to recreate some of the magic it sprinkled around this time last year, when five astounding games in five whirling days sprouted into Calhoun’s third NCAA title.

As this beastly tournament grows teeth, we’ll see if the stubborn man soon to turn 70 can ignore debilitating pain, or if this is the medical condition that finally causes him to say adieu. A rabid gym rat, Calhoun is happiest when he’s coaching teenagers, but the surgery he underwent Feb. 27 in which a disk fragment was removed to relieve the torture of spinal stenosis caused many to wonder if he should even return to the sidelines.

Of course he did, just as he came back from an earlier monthlong medical leave, and overcame prostate cancer before that, and beat skin cancer twice, and in 2009 broke several ribs during a bicycle crash, but then dusted himself off and rode several miles to finish the charity event. Calhoun is the Clint Eastwood of college hoops.

The specter of an NCAA-imposed banishment from the 2013 tournament also lurks, those past academic problems as pesky as the sanctions from recruiting violations that caused Calhoun to earlier be suspended for three games. Calhoun practically growls when asked to imagine a world without the mad drama and joy of March. It’s all he has ever known, for 26 years and counting.

“The pain is a different kind of pain, it’s a muscular pain. Thank God it’s no longer a nerve pain and I’m not walking with a cane anymore. I couldn’t walk with a cane on the sidelines because the officials might have been hit,” he said, and no, he wasn’t joking.

“Someone said I only have two years left on my extension. I don't know if I can make two more minutes,” he added, and yes, he certainly was kidding. “Someone better pay me for two more years. That’s what I’m saying. My point is, I’m trying to coach this basketball team, and that’s my job. But it’s also my love. And that’s why I came back to my basketball team, because I felt I owed them something.”

In the second half Tuesday, as the Blue Demons cut UConn’s lead to nine points, Calhoun’s lungs were on fire. He screamed for someone, anyone to take control—Kemba Walker being otherwise engaged—and so Alex Oriakhi slammed home a dunk off a second chance opportunity. This was followed by a fastbreak layup from Jeremy Lamb, and with the Huskies back up by 15, Calhoun practically danced in front of the scorer’s table.

Gone was the smoke floating out of his ears.

“Yeah, he still gets animated. It’s so great seeing him like that. It fires us up,” said Lamb, who led everyone with 25 points, many coming from open shots off big-man screens. He went 10-of-18 from the field, including 3-of-6 on 3s, while Boatright dropped in 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting and equaled his career high with seven assists.

DePaul broke into an 11-0 run in the second half, as UConn slumbered, but the Blue Demons closed the season in typical fashion, withering late to lose their 10th game in their last 11. At least UConn vs. WVU hints at a revival of that stirring matchup from earlier this season, though the Huskies now have much more at stake.

Last year they were also seeded ninth, before ripping off an 11-game winning streak that began, interestingly, against DePaul, and ended with UConn shaking up an already wacky NCAA Tournament. Balancing on the bubble after finishing a dreary 8-10 in league play (and looking listless without Calhoun), UConn needn’t win the Big East to secure a tournament berth, but should the Huskies reach Thursday’s quarterfinals with Syracuse and its measly one loss, the ground under the Garden just might crack.

“Everyone talks about how last year we pulled off the impossible,” said Oriakhi, the traces of scrapes and scratches left on his face by feisty Blue Demons still visible. “So we know it’s possible. We watch Coach and all the pain he’s been through. We (need) to remember that, because if he can be that tough, we should be like that mentally.”

As Andre Drummond, the irrepressible freshman center has noted, Calhoun is likely “going to keep going until his time is up.” He was exhausted last Saturday, after thumbing his nose at doctors and returning early to coach UConn in its 74-65 win over Pittsburgh. Calhoun, as usual, snarled through that game, too, and finished with his shirt soaked clean through. He looked slightly less drenched following Tuesday’s Big East opener, but not for lack of trying.

“We wish he would just sit and relax,” Lamb said on his way out of the Garden. “But he said he came back for us, and he’s not going to change.”

Of course they fret about their coach’s pain, but who’s going to dare tell him to take it easy? Good luck trying, Lamb said. Might as well tell Calhoun to stop chomping on nails.